Lotus Petals
by rwbybomb21
Summary: Ruby wasn't always cheery; she hid her pain behind masks of happiness, her loneliness behind smiles. Ren finds this out, and will die trying to get her a friend. Along with Blake, will he succeed? or will something much more than friendship occur?
1. Chapter 1

**A RenXRuby fic, which I have been informed, is called Red Lotus. **

**I don't own RWBY, and this fic was inspired by the story 'All These Lonely Nights' by Ragehappy Mavin Fan.**

**If you're reading this, consider this inspiration from you.**

**I ...I...well; I know I said I would have news now, but I don't. Monty refused my request to own RWBY, so now I just write Fanfiction.**

***Sobs***

**(^^^^^^)**

"_Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them."_

_-Jodie Picoult, My Sister's Keeper-_

(^^^^^^)

Ruby was a loner; it wasn't exactly rocket science why she was. She never had sleepovers; she was an extreme introvert and weapon fanatic; she hated large crowds and was socially awkward. The list could go on. Ruby was what many would call 'weird'. Ruby was, to say the least, completely ignorant to what people say about her, what they want to say about her. She was only fifteen and she basically chased a criminal- who got away- to get in. Of course, Ozpin saw not only potential, but leadership within her and made her the leader of her little group; so he not only subjected her to more rumours by the student body, but also, unwillingly, got her sidelong glances and...Suggestive smiles from her friends and fellow students.

It seems people liked introverted, scythe wielding warriors at fifteen.

Ruby, in question, was sat on the roof of Beacon on a Saturday, basking in the warmth the sun provided her pale skin. She could sit and sunbathe for hours and her skin would never lose its sickly pale complexion, and she stopped trying to figure it out after a while. She was currently thinking about a certain something called a certain scythe, Crescent Rose; designs, blueprints, schematics and more flowed through her brain, clouding her thoughts until a shadow loomed over her, and a pair of twin, magenta eyes stared at her.

"Ruby, can I ask why you're up here when the sun's out?" Ren's magenta eyes flashed into her mind for a second, before it was clouded by weapons and schematics again. Though, she was forcing these thoughts on, not letting them flow.

"Oh hey, Ren... Just thinking, is all." She said absentmindedly. In reality she was taking apart crescent rose and a number of her teammate's and friend's weapons to add upgrades and the likes. Ren's Stormflowers crossed her mind, and they stayed there.

Then, something occurred to her; she didn't know how they worked. Her friends had shown her how theirs worked, but Ren hadn't. More importantly though, every single person on her own team and JNPR could be considered friends, but Ren...she wasn't sure.

Her head darted up so quick that Ren had to take a step back to allow her to jump to her feet.

"Ren...We're friends, right?" Ruby asked, looking at Ren, then her shoes.

Ren, in question, was raising his eyebrow. "Do you not want to be friends?" this side to Ruby was a rare treat, but right now she was red in the face, sad and looked like a kicked puppy...too bad for Ren he liked puppies.

"I do! It's just you haven't really talked to me that much, and we haven't had a proper conversation and we haven't told secrets or done friend stuff or-" Ren simply spoke to stop Ruby from talking.

"Look Ruby, I know we haven't really talked that often, if at all, and I would like to be your friend, but there is a question I would like to ask."

"...of course. Yeah, of course...!" Ruby was over the moon that Ren wanted to be her friend, her face showing glee.

"Don't you have enough friends?" he questioned, and saw the drop in her cheery attitude.

"Well...Weiss doesn't really like me as a friend; she 'tolerates my leading her'. Yang is my sister, and after being around her for fifteen years of my life, it would be nice to talk to someone else. Blake doesn't really socialise, so I doubt I could hold a conversation with her or have fun. Pyrrha and Jaune are nice, but they're more of..." Ruby was lost for the word.

"...Friendly acquaintances...?" Ren guessed which got him a nod from Ruby.

"Yeah...but they don't even want to talk or go out to do something or...I don't know, they're too wrapped up in themselves to notice me..." Ruby gave a small sigh, and for once, Ren saw a side he never thought he would see to Ruby; sadness. "Nora...she's too hyper to hold a conversation, and if she does it will most definitely be about sloths or something."

Ruby gave a rueful smile and a sad laugh. "No one seems to want to be my actual friend, even though they're all friendly and happy around me. I've been lonely, a loner, an introvert, all my life. I just want a real friend. Someone to talk to and trust, someone to be near and not have to worry about anything, to tell secrets, to travel with and laugh with..."Tears started to fall from Ruby's eyes. "I just want a friend..."

Ren was shocked. Ruby, the always smiling Ruby who showed nothing but compassion and care towards her so-called friends, was not as happy as everyone thought she was. They all thought her always smiling, cheery, whimsical and care-free; she was the exact opposite. He could almost guarantee that when Ruby turned her head after Weiss scolded her for something admittedly cute, she was silently wiping a tear away. Or when she was left behind by her sister and 'friends' as they all went to a movie Ruby couldn't see he thought he saw, as he walked off with them, a small tear and a frown on her face before she turned and walked away, hiding her pain behind smiles and cheerfulness.

Now that he thought about it, the teachers seemed to understand this, like they saw this happening, the internal conflict within Ruby's head; they seemed to be nice to her not because they favoured her as a student- which they did- but because she was sad and lonely and she was hiding behind a mask of happiness.

Fake happiness.

It also occurred to Ren, as he stroked Ruby's hair as she sobbed into his green jacket, that she was probably the loneliest person in the world-Weiss probably has nothing on her loneliness. Her sister always left her to go with her own friends, her teammates didn't want to befriend her, like they didn't care. Team JNPR just didn't like her as a friend, and saw her as a companion, nothing more.

Lastly, it dawned on him; that was why she invested so much time into her weapon, and offered to repair and upgrade everyone else's. She was trying to prove herself, show people she could be a good friend, but people didn't see it like that, they saw it as a way to see their weapons more in-depth, as the weapon fan they thought she was.

She wasn't a weapon fan, she just saw weapons better than people; at least weapons couldn't leave you in the dirt and make you cry when they wouldn't be your friend.

Ruby seemed to come to the same realisation as Ren, but maybe she was taking it the wrong way.

As Ren let her go and held her at shoulder length, Ruby wiped her eyes and forced a smile, to which Ren frowned at; he didn't like her hiding her pain.

But she wanted to. It was all she knew to do, hide her pain behind many masks of the opposite of what she was feeling.

"Thanks, Ren...sorry for snotting up your shirt." She shyly chuckled, before turning to walk away, seemingly forgetting about the little outburst and her attempted friendship with Ren. It was as if some sort of switch had turned off, and she forgot her pain. But she didn't, it was just well hidden.

Ren frowned deeper, and called out to Ruby as she walked over to the doorway that led to the school's second floor, the dorm area. "Ruby!"

She stopped walking and turned, facing him with a small smile, clearly forced now that Ren knew what to look for.

"Please stop hiding your pain behind smiles; if you need anything, just come and talk to me." For the first time ever, Ren smiled a genuine smile and his tone filled with warmth. "Just come and see me if you need anything okay? I'm pretty sure friends help each other out."

Ruby looked puzzled for a second, then sad, then happy when he finished. "We...We're friends?"

Ren nodded, a small smile on his face. "Of course we are."

Ruby just looked perplexed and slightly nodded, turned, and walked off, a look of purpose in her steps; though what that purpose was is, as of to Ren, unknown.

He just shrugged, a small smile playing his lips as he walked back to his dorm a little time after Ruby entered hers.

Blake, who was watching the whole ordeal from her little perch in the shadows, was utterly mortified. Ruby, who she assumed was always cheery, always happy, was silently suffering? It seems, as she came to the same conclusion Ren did, Blake was growing a frown as Ruby smiled everything off.

Blake had to do something.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby entered her dorm room, the same smile on her face as when she always had to see Blake sat there, curiously with no book in her hands, Weiss filing her nails as she always did and Yang sitting in her bunk reading the latest edition of X-Ray and Vav.

"Hey guys!" Ruby said, her voice chipper, despite what had happened earlier. It was clear that Ruby was hiding everything she was feeling behind that smile and voice now to Blake; it was painfully obvious to her and Ren now.

"Ruby..." Weiss said nonchalantly.

"Hey Rubes." Yang muttered, clearly distracted by the comic she was reading.

Blake frowned up at her partner and Weiss before nodding with a small smile on her face to Ruby. "Hello again Ruby." she said politely.

Ruby was taken aback by Blake's sudden kindness, and stumbled over her words. "Oh...hey Blake. Umm...how's it going?" she was just throwing her luck to the wind; Blake never did talk to her a lot.

Blake seemed to smile a little more. "Well, I read a good book, which I think you'll like and I was hoping you'd like to go for a walk tomorrow. I need to get out and stretch my legs anyway."

Ruby didn't know what was happening to her teammate, but she was going to milk this for every ounce of luck there was, damn it!

"Sure...Hey, umm...do you want to...maybe...read together later?" reading and taking peaceful walks through the safe parts of the forest were really all they had in common. Blake seemed to light up like a Christmas tree for some reason, but Ruby didn't seem to care, and Weiss and yang were too busy. She was _so_ going to milk this new friendly Blake for every ounce of friendship she had, and then some.

"Of course." Blake beckoned Ruby closer and the little redhead did so with a dizzying amount of stamina. "How about we go for a walk right now. These two don't really seem to care, anyway."

Ruby nodded, and followed Blake as she led the way out of the dorm and to the forest, unaware of Blake's real motives for this.

'_I'll give you a friend you can rely on if it kills me, Ruby.'_

Whist they walked out, Ren was heading to the forest, trailing after the two girls with his thoughts travelling the same direction as Blake's.

'_I'll give you a friend you can rely on if I have to get Nora to kill me, Ruby'_


	2. Chapter 2

Being a Faunus and having very good hearing has its advantages...like being able to hear when someone was sneaking up on her, and react to it faster than a human would have. So why, when she heard a twig snap, did she not do anything about it? She was perplexed as to the reason of that herself, but, she realised, she should pay attention to Ruby, who was walking with a small, forced smile on her face. She briefly wondered why Ruby would hide behind forced smiles and a faux cheery attitude, but then considered that her life must have been lonely, and after what she heard on the rooftop earlier, it reinforced her original opinion in the matter. Ruby, the, as Weiss calls her, 'dolt' was rather smart, actually to be hiding behind smiles and a curtain of fake happiness, and mask it so well no one knew the difference between fake and real. It was beginning to cause Blake's mind to fuzz a little, so she left it to herself.

She looked back at Ruby, and saw a small, almost unnoticeable frown make its way onto her face; almost. Then, just like that, Ruby somehow steeled herself and the always-present smile was adorning her face once more.

"Ruby, do you like the forest?" it was a weak attempt to get the redhead's attention, but no matter; it worked.

"Yeah," she cheerily replied, though now Blake knew what to look for when she was faking her voice, heard that it was forced. "Nature has a sort of...effect on you, you know?" Blake nodded. "It's sort of calming, but at the same time...it opens your eyes."

This side to Ruby was intriguing to say the least." Why so?"

Ruby looked at her, and her expression was an honest calm one. "Well...it's just the way the colours blend, twist around each other. The way they mix and separate at the same time..."

Now Blake was confused. This was a rather interesting Ruby, but she figured that with her nose in a book so long, Ruby may have always been like this and she may have just missed this side to her. "I'm...not sure I understand..." Blake muttered.

Ruby cheered up a bit, some _real_ cheerfulness showing. "Well, I guess it comes with being an artist, but you just see the world and people differently..."

Blake stopped walking. "Wait, an artist?" Now she knew she definitely has been reading too often. Ruby, the clumsy 'dolt' was an artist? To be fair, she had seen her fight, and that was something close to elegant dancing, so perhaps Ruby must've been an artist, and her head was practical buried in books; this means, to the simple of minded, that Blake couldn't notice due to her own choosing of ignorance, and now she felt bad.

Ruby looked shy. "Y-Yeah...when you dedicate as much time to weapons and drawing schematics, I guess art skills are just sort of natural..." she trailed off.

Blake nodded in understanding. "I see, so the schematics you draw are your art?"

Ruby shook her head. "Yes...and no. My art is my drawing. Schematics for weapon designs and upgrades is fun an' all, but drawing scenery? Painting a canvas of pure and raw emotion from in here"- she tapped her chest, just above where her heart was located- "is different from just sketching simple ideas...it's what you feel about a place, person or feature. You just...do. There's no planning, thinking, you just see it...and do it."

Blake was...amazed. Ruby, who seemed insightful, was an artist? And from her description of the differences; she seemed rather a good one too.

Before Blake could speak, Ruby continued. "I've also...drawn what each person in our team means and what I think about them..." she looked a mixture between shy and nervous all of a sudden.

Blake felt something tug at her heart, but didn't quite understand what it was; the feeling came after Ruby mentioned she had drawn them all, but Blake hadn't noticed...unless...she's been reading way too much to notice her surroundings as good as she thinks she does. That or Ruby draws at night when they're all asleep.

Before she could say anything, yet again, a new voice sounded through the forest, alerting her to its owner's presence. "I think I'd like to much see those, Ruby."

Ren; Blake immediately dropped her guard. Ren was Ruby's new friend, so if he could calm her down, cheer her up and generally be there for her, she saw no other reason to be so wary of him.

Because Ren was always stoic, mysterious and uncaring, she assumed he was a bad person, and so kept her eye on him- the other was on her book- whenever she could get the chance. Now, seeing him come out like that, seeing him smile genuinely at Ruby, he wasn't such a bad person after all; just...stoic to the point of not caring about what Nora does, and that could be mistaken for not caring what anyone does; thus, making him a liability. Blake then realised that he and her were two of the same sides form s different coin; they were both stoic, yes, but in their own way. Ren would ignore Nora, whilst Blake wouldn't ignore her teammates or partner; just not take part in their antics.

"Heya Ren!" Ruby seemed to be genuinely happy around him after he proclaimed friendship not an hour ago to her. Blake was grateful for that, at least.

Ren flashed a small smile. "Hello Ruby. can I ask what you two are doing out here?" he inquired, pointing to Ruby and then Blake, then standing near an Oak Tree, leaning on it moments later.

Blake piped in. "We were taking a walk." She stopped for a moment. "If it's okay with Ruby, you can join if you like." she then started to stand...closer to Ruby, almost protectively, as if warning him of something.

Whatever it was, he didn't figure it out because the next thing he knew, Ruby was dragging him along by the sleeve, albeit gently, to follow. And all the while, she was smiling, true and genuine, and Blake couldn't help but smile along with her walking partner.

Ren just sighed, with a small smile on his face, and sped up to walk side-by-side with Ruby now, making sure Blake is the one at the back; not that she cared: This way she could listen to Ruby more, and not have the obsessive compulsion to ignore her. It wasn't as though she wanted to ignore her, but she just switched off, involuntarily, I might add, sometimes whenever Yang was around, and that just seemed to rub off to everyone she was near.

She listened to the conversation Ren started up. "So, Ruby, you're an artist?" Ren actually seemed interested in this.

Ruby enthusiastically, albeit shyly, nodded. "Yeah...it just came...naturally..."

"How come no one knows about it?" and straight away, he might as well have punched Ruby then and there, to get a worse reaction form her than he did right now.

Ruby grew a small, angry frown, and her voice laced with venom that Blake hadn't heard before. "Everyone doesn't care about me...they're all too self-absorbed to notice..."

Ren seemed to be taking this in, and motioned with his hand set in a circular motion for her to continue. Blake just hung back and pressed a button n her scroll, recording what was being said. Ruby might hate her for it, but it was for her own good; as well as her mental health's stability.

"Yang, she just brushes everything I say off with a smirk and the usual nonsense of 'I'm your sister, it'll be fine'. It's not fine, not really..." Ruby sighed, and seemed to be sad. She also seemed to be forgetting Blake was there, as she was next for discussion. "Blake...she's a mystery. She opened up to us about...certain things, but she's just too absorbed in books to notice me properly, or beyond when I'm ordering her as team leader...but...well, now she's my friend, so I guess she's trying to be open..."

"More than you know, Ruby." Blake whispered, listening to the rest of the conversation.

Ren seemed to notice she had gone silent and left the mention of Weiss out. "What about Weiss, your partner?" he inquired, tilting his head to one side. He seemed genuinely interested in her thoughts of her teammates.

Ruby's face went as sour as one might expect form sucking on a lemon for an hour. She creased her brow, her eyes shining with something, but Ren was not too sure he wanted to know what. Then, her smile shone through, a small, self contained- yet forceful- smile.

"She's a good person..." Ruby's smile disappeared, and all that was left was a blank face with a monotonous voice following. "...Let's talk about something else."

Ren, who had become aware of Blake recording looked back to see her still recording. She motioned with her hand to ask another question about something. "So...what do you draw?"

Ruby immediately perked up. "Oh! I draw all sorts of things! I draw people; I even drew professor Port once. I draw Forever Fall, The Emerald Forest, and Atlas..." Ruby went quiet for a while, and finally said. "...The Snowy Forest..." Well, I say said, but more of whispered.

Blake almost slammed her scroll shut, ending the recording and getting their attention.

"You two walk ahead, I just got a note from Yang that she needs to see me about something."

As Blake walked away, she did so with haste, ready to bring the attention of the heiress and brawler that Ruby is quietly suffering.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long time, I forgot where this was going for a while.**

**I don't own RWBY, blah, blah, blah.**

**Short chapter, but there you go.**

**(^^^^^^)**

She had arrived at their shared dorm, almost bursting through the door, shocking the two occupants inside from their occupations; Yang was reading the latest comic, X-ray and Vav, of course, with Weiss studying everything she had already learnt, going over the basics for the next upcoming test.

Yang looked over to Blake and blinked her eyes, getting rid of the shock of seeing the usually stoic and contained person smash through their dorm door. "Blake...?"

Without word, Blake ran over and yanked Yang down from the bed by her ear, causing her to cry out in both protest and pain, while grabbing Weiss by the arm and forcefully dragging them to the centre of the, admittedly filthy, room, glaring to cease their groans of protest.

Again, without a word, she drew her scroll and played the recording she made in the forest.

Weiss and Yang went silent when it finished.

Then, suddenly, Yang started to cry. Yang Xiao Long, known around Beacon to be one of the strongest first years around, was stood there, shoulder racking up and down, quietly sobbing.

Blake turned to Weiss, and saw the expected reaction; an indignant huff, glacial cold glare and a stone-cold face, all of which said to Blake and Yang both, 'I honestly don't care'.

As if to prove her point, Weiss spoke uncaringly. "Should I be bothered by this?"

Now, right then and there, in the space of a mere second, Blake had come up with eighty two different ways to torture Weiss Schnee. All extremely graphic, all involving some form of the removal of organs, limbs, digits and eyes.

But Blake simply seethed and spoke as coldly as she could. "That is your partner, your _best friend_, and you don't care that she's suffering and hiding behind smiles?" Blake's hand fell into a fist, balled at the side of her left leg and her eyes set to 'kill'.

Weiss' look was as impassive as ever. "I never asked that dunce to be my friend, nor do I feel or return the sentiment. She became my partner by accident; she has done nothing to prove herself to me. She is, by all accounts, not even worthy of my time, let alone the air she breathes around me."Okay, even Weiss had to admit, that was colder than she was, but it was for her own, as well as Yang and Blake's good, that these issues be addressed. "She's childish and immature, she never pays attention, she always goofs off and never listens to a word I say, and she expects me to be nice? No, I hate her, and to be honest, this team would be better with someone else leading it, and that buffoon to be expelled."

Blake didn't just seethe, now she was like a boiling pot, with the rage-filled water seeping over the edge, it only took the slightest tip to knock it all out. Then, suddenly, her face went back to stoic, her voice monotonous; her eyes half-lidded and it clearly threw a once impassive Weiss off.

"Weiss, the headmaster will be hearing of this. You cannot treat another person, another human being or any being, for that matter of fact, like this."

Weiss grew a small smirk on her face. "Oh, and do tell, how is Ozpin going to hear of this?"

That was when Blake produced a small, black and red tape recorder, and Weiss' face went pale with worry. "With this." As if to demonstrate her point, Blake waved it in the air.

Weiss suddenly grew pleading. "Blake, please! Why would you do this for that idiot? What has she ever done for you?"

Blake lost her impassive look and tone and snapped back. "The same that she's done for you...!" Blake's breathing grew heavy once more. "She's helped us all in many ways! Can't you see that? Ruby thought because you were cold and arrogant it was the way you were raised..."

Blake then began walking to their shared dorm and after opening the wooden structure placement; she flipped her head over her shoulder and snarled.

"...Now I see you're nothing but a bitch."

But, just as she turned to leave, she saw Ruby, and all present would never forget the face she gave them.

It wasn't sadness, no; it was much more heart-wrenching.

It was shock and pain.

Without a word, Ruby fled, ignoring a protesting Ren and worried Pyrrha and Jaune and Nora.

Tears beaded down her face as she fled, running out of Beacon towards Vale, to the one safe, friendly place she has left.

Home.


End file.
